A New Publisher Is Seeking to Highlight Literature from the Indian Subcontinent

The newly announced LotusFeet Book Publication P. Ltd will seek to publish and translate both contemporary and classic Indian literature.

The last few years has seen a proliferation of translated literature into English from languages across the globe, but where European languages dominate in the field of translated literature, Hindi and Bangla are scant. A new Indian publisher seeks to change that.

According to The Hindu, LotusFeet Book Publication P. Ltd, has set a mission to publish Hindi and Bangla literature and translate many of those titles into English. “The abundant high quality Indian literature of past and present,” said its mentor Prabal Kumar Basu, “is either getting lost or remaining confined to the area and people using the language. LotusFeet wants to break this by selecting quality manuscripts for translation. Original works too will be commissioned to promote talent.”

While the initial focus will be on Hindi and Bangla languages, its managing editor Amrita Bera told The Hindu: “In the coming years…we definitely want to tap Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Odisha literature.”

The Hindu reported LotusFeet’s initial line-up, which includes an English translation of the Bangladeshi novelist Bimal Lama’s classic Rushika, Fiction by the avant-garde Hindi writer and poet Geet Chaturvedi, an anthology of contemporary Hindi fiction, as well as an English-language anthology of Bangla poetry written between 1952 to 2010.

“Rather than the celebrity status of author or poet,” Basu told The Hindu, “The aim is to showcase the best.” While the house does not yet appear to have a website or posted dates of publication, it does keep a Facebook page.